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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Review: Rooted PLUS Author Spotlight: Amy Good

Chloe Chastain is not just an average teenage girl living in the Pacific Northwest. She's also a tree spirit doing her best to avoid the local werewolf pack and not fail her sophomore year of high school. Or get stuck in detention. Again.
So when her friend is turned into a werewolf and she attracts a dangerous stalker, Chloe realizes there is more at stake than her permanent record.

I loved this book, I'll say that straight out. It's like a cross between
Need and Shiver, but it's unique, too. It smashes stereo-types about
wolves, spirits and even cliques. This book... Well, lets just safely
say that this review will probably contain a lot of fangirling.

Ok,
so firstly, I absolutely ADORE the cover of Rooted. It's purely
beautiful! It's mysterious, so you want to find out what the relations
are between the cover and the book. The first few chapters seem pretty
uneventful, though further in the book you do realise bits of it are
significant.

I imagine Amy must have had a lot of fun with the
fact that Chloe works in an ice-cream shop. This is one of my favourite
little passages from it, even though it doesn't have any action or
anything like that:

"Cameron, the owner’s daughter, walked from
the back room to help me. She made the espresso shot while I scooped
coffee-flavored ice cream into a large bowl shaped like a coffee mug. I
added chocolate-covered coffee beans, hazelnut and chocolate syrups, and
enough whipped cream to send a person into a diabetic coma. She poured
the espresso shot around the edges of the whipped cream and followed it
with a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg." - personally, I hate coffee,
but this makes it sound awesome! All the other ice creams that are
described in Rooted sound awesome, too! And there names! The one above
is the Express Yourself, which is an awesome pun.

I mentioned
before that Rooted is way different from stereotypes. I'm a person who
HATES stereotypes, because I hate people being carbon copies and not
having their own mind. Grayson is a werewolf, and Chloe is a tree
spirit, but they're not like in other movies, books etc. "He didn’t look
like werewolves from books or movies. He never sported a five o’clock
shadow or hairy arms. He wasn’t all that tall or menacing. I’d never
seen him glower." Grayson actually seems like quite a nice guy, a proper
gentleman, when the wolf is under control! Rooted also shows us about
typical cliques... I hated Lillian, Margot and the other brainless
sheets in their clique!

Even though it's about a werewolf and a
tree spirit, where there are a lot of problems around, I love how
Chloe's character is still a very typical teen girl. When she and
Rebecca are in tons of trouble, running away, getting hurt, what does
she do? Think about her geometry test. Or was it English?

Chloe
is slightly judgemental of others, probably due to the fact that she
doesn't know if they are werewolves or spirits too. She always seems to
analyse Rebecca's shirts, which made me laugh!

Rooted doesn't
have a lot of romance in it, but I think if it had got a romance in it,
it would have taken the action and slight mystery out of the story, and
it would just be yet another werewolf romance book, not the perfect book
that it is. However, there are a few cute interactions between Grayson
and Chloe... I ship them so much now!

Overall, Rooted is just
awesomely amazing ASDFGHJKL perfect. Beautiful, thought-provoking,
well-formed characters and a perfect balance of action, mystery, drama
and typical teenage stuff. I loved it, and I'm sure you will too...
Because you can get it FREE, here!

I am a writer from the U.S. currently living in Dublin. I write part-time, but only when my tyrannical toddler allows it! I also co-created the Story Bandit, a phone/web app that steals writer's block. When I'm not writing, I tweet about the joys and troubles of being a writer, a geek, a toddler mom and a non-native Dubliner. I really hope you like what you read and will consider stopping by occasionally!

Thank you for coming
on To Another World for this interview, Amy!

As you can see from
my review and all my fangirling, I absolutely LOVE Rooted. Where did you get
your inspiration for it?

It makes me so unbelievably happy that you loved
Rooted!!Thank you so much!As for how I got the idea, it came out of a
few things.First and most importantly,
I watched a marathon of MTV's Teen Wolf and by the end, I knew I wanted to
write a story about werewolves!I knew I
wanted to fill the world with lots of different shapeshifters, though, and to
give the female protagonist something different and unique and something I
hadn't seen before.I was missing the
Pacific Northwest, so that became part of the story, and I knew that I wanted
to I wanted my protagonist to reflect my love of that place!Around the same time, I had read a news story
about an orphaned girl who had been bullied so badly she'd committed suicide,
and somehow her story became part of Rooted.And after having my daughter, I found myself wanting to explore how much
harder it is to be a teen right now, as opposed to when I was that age!Because let's face it… you guys have things
so much tougher!!

You JUST started a
YouTube channel. Why is that? Is it because of people like me reading Rooted,
or just some fun to do?

I've heard the idea kicked around a lot- that writers should differentiate
themselves and break into YouTube.But I
honestly didn't know what to put on it!I tried reading passages out loud, but I sound atrocious.It's like I'm reading off the grocery
list.I can't believe I can sound so
horrible with words I wrote myself!!So
I noticed I've been getting questions, and I decided I'd just open up a bit and
talk to everybody instead.How do you
think it's working so far?

Your last chapter
almost killed me! Why did you end like that??

Um..Because I wanted
to??;)Gosh, how do I answer this question?I felt like the main story got wrapped up!I resolved the question of what happened to
Lillian, and why Margot was doing what she did.I let Chloe confront her stalker and find out who really had her back.I even let you in on all kinds of family and
foster family secrets!I know I left a
few loose ends, but that's because I'm working on some short stories to give my
readers a bit more fun in Chloe's world!!

The all important
question.... Is there a sequel coming up?

Of course!I don't
know when I'll finish it, but I'm working on it!! J And to tide everyone over
until then, I've also been writing those short stories I mentioned.Don't worry, I'll let everyone know once
they're finished!

There isn't much
romance in Rooted. Is there a specific reason for this, or....?

I know, right! ;)A
lot of the people who've read it so far want there to be more romance, but it
just didn't fit into the story and I didn't want to shove it in for the sake of
having a love story.Rooted is really
about friendship in the end, and it didn't feel right to clutter it up with a
romance too.Also, if you think about,
Chloe is understandably pretty wary of boys so I didn't think she'd be rushing
into a relationship before getting to know the boy first!

Now for some fun
questions!

My signature author
interview question. What three items would you take on a desert island, and
they CAN'T be anything that helps you get off, because I know you author types.
You are STUCK on it.

My husband and my Kiddo!!And the internet.I'm pretty sure
I could live on a desert island as long as I have internet!Otherwise, how will anyone read my books?

Role model/person you
look up to the most?I look up to a
lot of women authors, from J.K. Rowling to Janet Evanovich.I tell myself I need to be as brave as
they've been in pursuing their dreams!

Favourite pudding?Do you mean the British pudding or the
American pudding?Because I've seen some
of the things they call pudding in this part of the world… And… Well…
Pass!;)

Do you like bagels?
(Don't ask. I just love them, so I wondered!)When I lived in the U.S. I could get
gluten-free bagels and I loved them so much!But I can't find them here in Ireland and since I've been diagnosed with
celiac, I won't risk a real bagel.

Favourite book???
Kindred, by Octavia Butler, is a really heavy book - not for the faint of heart
- but it spoke to me in a really powerful way.It's instantly the book I think of as my favourite!

And a few this or
that questions...

Typing or pen and
paper?Usually typing because I
can't go very far without a thesaurus.You've seen my YouTube videos, so you've seen all my awkward pauses
while I search for what I'm trying to say.Now imagine that 100 times worse when I'm trying to write in Chloe's
voice!!Yep, a pen and paper doesn't cut
it anymore.

Tea or coffee? It
used to be tea,but now I drink so much
coffee just to keep up with Kiddo!

Ebook or physical
copy?I've formed an unhealthy
relationship with my Kindle, so I'd have to say ebook!!